The Gods of the Copybook Headings

The poem was released at a deeply confusing and worrying time. The First World War had killed 17 Million people—Kipling’s son one of them—and the Spanish flu killed an additional 59-100 Million people between 1918-1920.

Disillusioned from the war, Pacifism became popular, Patriotism unpopular, and religion and morality suffered a major setback.

The Russian Revolution had removed the Tsar in 1917 and many people looked at Marxist socialism as the solution to all humanity’s problems.

Kipling was not happy with the political developments. He feared that giving up morals and values would lead to people not trusting each other and result in the destruction of the civilization. The poem is his warning.
https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_copybook.htm